Mac's NFL Picks - Week 10

Brian McIntyre

11/09/2007

"The 49ers and Seahawks have had disappointing seasons, so naturally ESPN gets to put their billion dollar hype machine behind what will assuredly be one of the lowest rated games the World Wide Leader broadcasts this fall."

Philadelphia at Washington (-3) – What do you think of this idea?

- "Puke on field during two-minute drill before throwing interception to end
Super Bowl"

- "Sustain sports hernia while attempting
to tackle player who just intercepted one of your passes"

- "Tear ACL throwing an incomplete
pass in Nashville"

Those are all options that will bring
you to the "Career with Philadelphia Eagles ends" page in the choose-your-own-adventure
book I'm currently writing about Donovan McNabb. Did I miss any? Pick:
Redskins -3

St. Louis at New Orleans (-12) – How bad has it been for the St. Louis Rams this season? Even coming off a bye week, they had to place a key starter
(Leonard Little) on injured reserve.

Buffalo (-3) at
Miami – Did anyone even notice that the Miami Dolphins had an
open date last week? Pick: Bills -3

Denver at Kansas City (-3) – Even with Larry Johnson on the sidelines
and Herm Edwards flirting with the idea of turning to Brodie Croyle at quarterback,
the Denver Broncos are an absolute mess of a team who I don't think can even
hang with anyone on the road right now. Pick: Chiefs -3

Minnesota at Green Bay (-6 ½) – As if Brad Childress didn't do enough
to submarine the Vikings' season by not immediately inserting Purple Jesus
into the starting lineup, he's gone ahead and ruined their collective karma
by actually docking wide receiver Troy Williamson a game check for spending
the week with his family after the death of his grandmother.

I've watched enough episodes of "My
Name is Earl" to know that when the most important player on your offense
possesses a glass collarbone, keeping your karma in good shape might be worth
your while. Pick: Packers -6 ½

Atlanta at Carolina (-4 ½) – A concussion will keep David Carr out
of the lineup which means Vinny Testaverde, who turns 44 years old next week,
will have to lead the Carolina Panthers to what they hope will be a three-way
tie atop the NFC South. Fun times! Pick: Panthers -4 ½

Cleveland at Pittsburgh (-10) – 6.5. That's the number of points opposing
teams are averaging when they come into Heinz Field. Even with the Browns
emergence as a high-powered offense, the Steelers have just dominated this
series over the last 8 ½ years. I expect that will continue. Pick: Steelers
-10

Jacksonville at Tennessee (-4) – David Garrard isn't ready to come back
and the Jacksonville's defense is showing signs of cracking and will be without
defensive tackle Marcus Stroud for the next month. Not really the best of
times for the rematch with the team that ran for 282 yards on you in Week
1, is it? Pick: Titans -4

Cincinnati at Baltimore (-5) – I feel like a moron for having picked
the Ravens and Bengals to finish 1-2 in the AFC North before the season, but
this game is actually pretty easy to figure out: Cincinnati is terrible on
the road and Baltimore is good at home. See? It's simple. Pick: Ravens
-5

Chicago (-3 ½) at Oakland – The Oakland Raiders have lost 4 straight
and head coach Lane Kiffin is openly pondering starting rookie quarterback
JaMarcus Russell and is threatening to kick the ball directly to the most
dangerous return man in the NFL. Here's what I take from that: Even Kiffin
doesn't expect the second half of the Raiders season to include many wins.
Pick: Bears -3 ½

Dallas (-1) at NY Giants – This Giants defense has improved to
the point where this game should be more like the classic NFC East battles
these two teams are known for, and less like the smackdown Dallas laid down
in Week1.

The spread is practically meaningless,
but I'll take the points here. You have to like the Giants coming off a bye
week against a team making back-to-back road trips within the division. Pick:
Giants +1

Detroit at Arizona (-1) – As a not-so impartial observer (I naturally
want the team chasing the Seahawks to lose whenever possible), it's easy for
me to choose a winner in this game. Do you want to know who won't have
an easy time choosing between Kurt Warner's Arizona Cardinals and Jon Kitna's
Detroit Lions? Jesus. Pick: Lions +1

Indianapolis (-3 ½) at San Diego –
Both teams are coming off disappointing
weeks, although you can kind of excuse what happened to the Colts. There's
less shame in losing to the best team in the NFL than there is when you allow
a rookie to post break the NFL's single-game rushing yards record against
you.

Both teams need this win. San Diego
needs it to keep pace with the Chiefs in the AFC West (did I just write that?)
and the Colts need it to keep the upstart Tennessee Titans at bay in the AFC
South. This is a minor stunner, but I think the Colts are bit too banged up
right now to beat the Chargers. Pick: Chargers +3 ½

San Francisco at Seattle (-9 ½) – The 49ers and Seahawks have had disappointing
seasons, so naturally ESPN gets to put their billion dollar hype machine behind
what will assuredly be one of the lowest rated games the World Wide Leader
broadcasts this fall. As a Seahawks fan, I'm sorry that you all have to witness
this NFC West game on Monday night. Personally, I'd much rather have this
game played at 1pm PDT so that only those who wanted to watch were subjected
to it.

However, I do revel in just about anything
that pisses off Tony Kornheiser, and trust me, nothing pisses Kornheiser
off more than him having to go to Seattle to call this game this week. Pick:
Seahawks -9 ½